Worstead Festival

A very hot evening for a run but it was a wonderful event, down country lanes, where villagers had come out of their homes and sat on garden chairs with glasses of wine, to cheer us on. And it was good to do an event that wasn’t just a run. This 5 miler was part of the Worstead Festival and so there were crowds of people milling about on the field and music playing and . . . what had really attracted me to the event . . . A BEER TENT with a great selection of Woodforde’s Brewery ales. As always, there was a big turn-out from my club, Norwich Road Runners (more than 50 of us there I believe) and Roly and Kieron from the cycling club were also taking part.

Raring to go!

My aim for the run itself was to get the Norwich Road Runners Club standard bronze time for a 5 mile event. The bronze club standard time for my age group is sub-50 minutes for 5 miles so I knew that as long as I kept within 10 minute miles I would be fine. The run went well: I ran the first couple of miles with another lady from my club who was aiming to run sub-54 minutes, but just before the 2 mile mark she wanted to ease off a bit as we were going somewhat faster than she needed to go, so I made off and found I could increase the pace a bit when I wasn’t chatting!

In fact, I ran faster each mile that went by so that shows that I could probably push the pace a bit more if I needed to. But it was good to start slowly and actually overtake people the whole way and have a bit of energy to say hello to spectators, high-5 small children, thank the marshalls and smile at them and chat to a few people from my club, rather than just huff and puff, pull nasty grimacing faces and swear to myself as I run which is what I usually seem to do in a race.

Near the finish

The official results are not available yet, but the time on my watch was 43:14 so easily inside the bronze time and actually just inside the silver club time too, although I am not bothered about that at the moment as I want to get my bronze medallion first and then go for the silver next year. So I have now got 3 of the 6 bronze club standard times that I need – the 5 mile, 10k and 10 mile. Next on my list is the half marathon distance, then I will have to find a 5k to do and then finally (and I shudder at the thought) is the Wymondham 20 Miler in the spring. I cannot imagine running 20 miles but I don’t have to think about that now! That’s a long way off.

A nice medal too!

In fact, I only had a single beer after the race and didn’t stay long to chat as I came over a bit weird – faint and feeling a bit sick. I’m not sure if that was the heat followed by a beer, or whether I am still recovering from last weekend’s lurgy. Probably a combination of the two as I have been felling a bit light-headed off and on all week.

But this is definitely a race I will do again – great atmosphere, good course, well-organised, pretty medal – and the beer tent of course.